Star Trek Vs Star Wars: The Beginning
by Darius Trent
Summary: When a normal Federation starship meets the rebels and the empire, the conflict to end it all begins. Reviews and opinions are welcome.
1. Chapter 1: Separate Beginnings

Star Trek vs Star Wars:

The Beginning

_In one universe, it is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet._

_Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy..._

_But in another universe, separate to this one, it is a period of relative peace. Five years after the end of the Dominion War, the United Federation of Planets and the other political entities of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants are rebuilding their fleets and colonies, with treaties being signed by all governments respecting and allying themselves with each other._

_In the midst of this peace, one ship, relatively unknown in the midst of this new era, is trudging along performing tasks that would normally be done by older ships close to retirement. This ship, however, is on the verge of participating in events that will change the paths of both universes unpredictably..._

Chapter 1: Separate Beginnings

The deep depths of space were littered with stars. In each of them was a system with a star or two, and an assorted amount of planets. No sound came from any of these, as the vacuum of space prevents sound from travelling through it.

The vacuum was not alone, however, as the large hull of a galaxy class starship broke through the scenery. The ship, the USS Arizona NCC-70199, moved through the vacuum as if it were made of nothing. It's federation crew were using the ship to explore and protect in a pacifist manner.

_Captain's log stardate 57200.59. The Arizona is nearing the end of it's patrol of the Ivor sector. My crew and I have been out here on the edge of federation space for over 3 years, and are looking forward to finally docking in at starbase 75._

On the main bridge, Captain Darius Trent sat in his command chair, issuing orders to his surrounding crewmen and officers. He had been in command of the Arizona since the day it was launched, the day before the dominion war. The ship was one of the six original hulls put away for storage for use at a later date. First contact with the Dominion and the Borg however, forced starfleet to press these hulls into service however, and with a few modifications, was made to be a true vessel of war, resistant to the phased polaron beams that the dominion utilised at the time, and was adapted to resist the Breen Energy Dampening Weapon alongside the rest of the Federation fleet. The ship was a proud survivor of operation return, the first battle of chin'toka and the battle of cardassia. Now however, she spent her days patrolling a small area of Federation space close to the Typhon expanse, a region of space known for temporal anomalies, and occasionally going in there for survey work. It almost seemed as if Starfleet Command had forgotten they even existed at points, as the ship was rarely pulled into the local outpost, starbase 75, for anything close to routine maintenance. That, however, was about to change.

"Sir, I'm getting some very strange readings from the Ivor system."reported lieutenant Jason Horan, the young officer at sciences, interrupting darius's thoughts. "Don't tell me it's another borg invasion." complained Lieutenant Sabrina Hawk, who was at the helm. The human female's brother had been assimilated by the borg in an incident where the Enterprise-E had gone back in time in order to prevent the cybernetic beings from assimilating earth before it discovered warp travel.

"Now let's not get down in the bogs about that Lieutenant" replied commander Miral Aldrin, the ship's young First Officer. "We all know what happened to your brother when he was spacewalking with Picard to remove the Enterprise's deflector dish."

"What can you say about these readings are so far?" Asked Darius, attempting to change the topic of the conversation.

"Well, it's not Borg for a start" Horan replied. "I'm comparing against the database right now, but all signs seem to mark this as an anomaly never encountered before"

"Understood."replied Dariyan in a cautious manner. "Lieutenant, how long will it take us to reach the Ivor system?"

"Warp 5 will take us there in approximately 2 hours" answered Hawk. "the Crazy Horse and the Galway are also in the area, but they're in the middle of cargo runs to Starbase 75."

"Understood" replied Darius. "Helm, lay in a course for the anomaly. Th'etonnor, send a message to the nearest outpost about our discovery."

"Yes captain." answered Th'etonnor, the Andorian Lieutenant Commander at tactical.

"Course laid in captain" announced Hawk. "ready to engage warp 5 at your command."

"Hit it." commanded the captain, his usual catch phrase for when he wanted something done.

And all at once, the massive hull of the Arizona swerved around to align with the Ivor system, then the warp nacelles did their magic, creating a bubble around the ship that bent the space around the Arizona so that it would travel faster that light without any time dilation effects. From the outside, it appeared as if the ship stretched before disappearing in a flash of light.

* * *

Above tatooine, the space was as silent as usual for a desert planet that only smugglers and the occasional cargo ship ever visited. This planet, one of the many lonely worlds in the outer rim, was one that was neglected by the Empire, and that left the Hutts with free reign over the planet. That though, was about to change.

Out of the depths of space, a small corvette, the Tantive IV, appeared out of hyperspace, before moving along as fast as it could. In pursuit of it, an imperial star destroyer, the Devastator, emerged from hyperspace as well, and started to bombard the helpless corvette. Both ships were exchanging fire, and it looked as if the much smaller corvette was in a losing battle.

On the corvette in question, Princess Leia stood on the bridge as shot after shot hit the durasteel hull of the ship. This ship, her personal starship for nearly 3 years, was secretly carrying plans for the empires latest super weapon the Death Star. She didn't know how the imperials had managed to track the Tantive IV from Scarif, but she did know that if she wanted to survive, she had to act now.

"They're attempting to hit the reactor" called out the officer at tactical. "Shields are at 10%."

"Maintain fire and heading." Commanded Captain Raymus Antilles.

"Sir I don't think we can maintain this for much longer." reported the tactical officer. "We were already damaged as it was, now we're exchanging fire with this star destroyer. I don't think we can-" Those were his last words before his console violently exploded, sending sparks everywhere and causing alarms to go off across the ship.

An astromech droid who was on the bridge at the time connected himself to the nearest interface, before speaking in a flurry of beeps and whistles.

"That last hit took out the main reactor" translated a crew member on the bridge.

"Give me the Death Star plans" cried out the princess. "We've got to complete our mission." A lieutenant gave her the plans as she ran off into the bellows of the ship.

The star destroyer ceased pounding the already helpless Tantive before increasing its speed to catch up to the drifting vessel. But before it could lock its tractor beam on the stricken vessel, the spatial rift, which had been sitting there for two hours by then, reappeared in front of the stricken cruiser. With no engines to stop it or slow it down, the Tantive IV drifted helplessly into the anomaly, the Devastator abruptly stopping as it appeared.

"My lord, the Tantive IV has disappeared into the anomaly." reported the first officer of the Devastator, Jason Kerala. "Shall we wait and send some fighters after her?"

"No." replied Lord Vader, who was overseeing the entire operation from the bridge. "It could be very well an attempt from them to escape. Have two other ships secure the area while we pursue them into the anomaly."

"Yes my Lord." answered Kerala

"And Captain" called out Vader.

"Yes my lord?" asked Kerala

"The plans for the Death Star are onboard that ship." he reminded. "Should you find that they escape our grasp, you would not like to experience what becomes of you."

"...yes lord vader" replied Kerala. He walked away with a much more hurried pace as Vader looked on, his breathing mask hiding the charred smile that lay beneath.

And without further adieu, the Devastator fired it's ion engines at maximum thrust. The anomaly slowly expanded to fit the Devastator as it approached, before absorbing the Devastator into the blueish core of it's essence. The anomaly flared into space, bright enough to be seen on the surface of Tatooine before disappearing as if it never existed.


	2. Chapter 2: The Crossover

Chapter two: The Crossover

_Captain's log supplemental. The Arizona is just on the edge of the Ivor system. I've convened with my senior officers for a briefing on the anomaly based on sensor readings we took an hour ago._

In the observation lounge of the Arizona, the senior staff of the Arizona Gathered around the table. At the head of the table was Captain Trent, and along each side of the table was the rest of the senior officers of the Arizona. Among them was Miral Aldrin, First officer, Th'etonnor, chief of security and senior tactical officer, lieutenant commander T'pon, the Vulcan Chief engineer and second officer, Lieutenant commander Dolovain, the new Denobulan Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant Horan, Chief science officer, and Lieutenant Hawk, head of operations. They all sat around the table, preparing their files and waiting for the ship-board clock that the Captain had installed to go to 10:00.

"So,"started Trent, clapping his hands once as he said so, "what have you got for me?"

"It appears to be a spatial anomaly that we currently are not familiar with." replied Horan. "Sensor reports indicate it is a type of subspace rift that is large enough for even a Borg Cube to pass through-"

"All the more reason to assume this is the start of a borg invasion!" interrupted Hawk.

"Lieutenant, what you are saying is not logical." commented T'pon. "The borg have not been seen ever since the USS Voyager returned from the Delta Quadrant. Furthermore-"

"that doesn't mean that there aren't several Borg cubes on the other side of that anomaly, waiting for their victims to come through so they can assimilate them!" Yelled Hawk.

"Hawk that's enough!" Demanded Aldrin, her authoritative voice silencing the entire room. "We all know what happened to your brother, and we all sympathize with you. However, right now we need you to stay on the task at hand. Is that understood?"

"...yes ma'am" replied Hawk, her voice a lot quieter that usual,

"Horan can you please continue with your analysis?"asked Trent

"Yes Captain." replied the impatient Horan. "I sent a probe into the Ivor system an hour ago sir." Horan walked up to the viewscreen behind the captain. He typed a few commands into his PADD and then a diagram appeared on the screen. "This diagram shows the rifts energy mass to the matter that comes out of it. Notice how the energy mass stays relatively consistent when nothing goes through the rift, but when any sort of matter passes through the rifts aperture, before then, the rift's energy mass spikes with the energy mass of the object that comes out."

"So we have a method of telling when ships are going to pass through." figured Th'etonnor.

"Do you have anything else?" asked Aldrin.

"Yes I do." he replied. "I told the probe to scan the other side of the anomaly whenever it opened. As far as I can tell, it leads to an entirely different universe."

"How did you come to this conclusion?"asked Trent. "This is very serious news we could be dealing with here."

"The probe scanned the star layout and compared it against star charts from past, present and future and found no correlation." answered Horan. "Furthermore, the probe scanned what appeared to be a class D planet below the rift's end at that point. Scans show heavy habitation as well as a varying quantum signature to our universe."

"A quantum signature shows which universe the object originates from." explained T'pon. "As the quantum signature in question does not match with our own, we can assume that this rift leads to an unknown universe."

"Interesting" remarked Trent. "Does anyone have any suggestions?"

"I recommend putting the ship on yellow alert Captain." answered Th'etonnor.

"Agreed. We cannot risk ourselves after what happened in the Dominion War." agreed Aldrin.

"Sir, we're reading a massive spike in the energy mass of the anomaly." remarked the crewman monitoring the bridge at that time. "It could be a ship."

"Set a course for the anomaly, maximum warp." ordered trent.

"Aye sir." replied the bridge officer.

"Everyone, to your posts." the Captain said as he got out of his seat.

"Yes captain." replied everyone else as they also got out of their seats and went to the exit.

"We're approaching visual distance now captain" said the crewman.

"Onscreen" commanded Trent.

The screen changed from the stretched stars to the anomaly in question. It had a bluish outer rim, with the centre being pure white. The colors of the anomaly continued to increase in intensity as it grew larger and larger.

"Dropping us out of warp now captain."reported Hawk. At once, the stars on the viewscreen snapped back into their original shape and stayed fixed on the screen.

"What are the readings coming through?" asked Trent.

"Sensor records show an energy surge of a starship around the length of a Defiant Class entering the anomaly around the time we were called to the bridge." answered Horan. "But when we got here, the mass spiked further, suggesting a ship half the length of a Borg Cube."

"Ha! I knew it was the Borg!" exclaimed Hawk, her excited anger causing her to get out of her seat and begin shouting at the rest of the bridge. "I knew it was, but you-"

"For gods sake, we understand your anger with the borg!" yelled Aldrin. "However, the information we have presently does not suggest a Borg ship. Only speak when you have something relevant to contribute. Is that understood?"

"...Yes Commander." quietly replied Hawk, as she quietly turned around to face her console again.

"Captain, the smaller ship is coming out of the anomaly." reported Th'etonnor.

Captain Trent looked up at the viewscreen as the smaller vessel came out of the anomaly. It was small compared to the Arizona, with multiple cylindrical projections at the rear with four single-barrel turrets lining the sides of the ship.

"Can you identify the ship?"asked Trent.

"I can find no match with any ship in the starfleet database." replied Horan. "Furthermore, their quantum signature is not in correspondence with our universe."

"What's the damage to their ship?" asked Aldrin.

"Scans show that the ship appears to have suffered multiple burns from some sort of plasma-based weapon." Horan replied. "Furthermore, the Arizona is scanning what appears to be some sort of ion-based reactor that is heavily damaged."

"Looks like they took a hell of a beating." commented Aldrin.

"Captain, the larger ship is coming through the anomaly." Remarked Th'etonnor

The crew's attention now turned from the smaller ship to the massive beast that now came out of the anomaly. Galaxy class ships like the Arizona were one of the largest ships that Starfleet fielded, but this was next level. It was more than double the size of the Arizona, with three massive engines at the back of it's massive wedge shaped primary hull. At the rear of the ship was a massive stalk that provided a platform for two spherical structures, connected to the ship by a latticework of poles and welding.

"Should I raise the shields?" Asked Th'etonnor.

"Not yet. Run a tactical scan of both ships." Asked Trent.

"Scanning." Announced Th'etonnor. "The smaller ship has 4 turret based plasma cannons. The larger one has 75 of them, alongside 60 ion based turret cannons similar to breen energy dampening weapons."

"Similar? How similar?" Asked Aldrin in a surprised tone.

"They both appear to serve a similar purpose. However, the ones on this new ship are far less powerful than the breen variant." replied Th'etonnor.

"Our shields have been remodulated since the Dominion War so that they aren't as effective against energy dampening weapons." Announced T'pon, who was sitting at an engineering station near the back of the bridge. "I can have them reconfigured in about 5 minutes, depending on our current power allocation."

"Reconfigure the shields to compensate." Ordered Trent.

"Aye sir." Replied T'pon, who got up from his workstation to go down to engineering.

"Captain, the larger ship's shields appear to be based around two large spherical structures at the top of the rear module." Commented Horan. "These structures however, do not seem to be protected themselves. If we were to fire a single phaser beam at each-"

"Let's not find flaws with our potential allies Lieutenant." Interrupted Trent.

A hail request suddenly came through Th'etonnor's console.

"Captain, the larger ship is hailing us."

"Put him on." requested Trent.

"Aye sir." responded Th'etonnor. He pressed a few buttons on his controls and in seconds, the commander of the vessel was on the screen. He was dressed in a black armor suit, with a mask covering his face and a cape. On his chest was a set of controls, presumably for some sort of environmental purposes.

"_This is the ISD Devastator to the unidentified vessel, cut your engines and prepare to be boarded alongside the Rebel ship." _He said, afterwards wheezing to breath.

"This is Captain Darius Trent the Federation Starship Arizona. You have no claim to this territory! In fact, you're in a completely different universe to your own!" Combated Trent.

An officer walked up and whispered something at the man on the screen. He then nodded and walked back to his post as the man in black looked back up and said. "_Very well then. If you fail to provide us the necessary designation then you are Rebels!"_

"I believe you're mistaken. We are the-" was all Trent could say before the hail was ended by the Devastator.

"Captain, the Devastator is launching fighters at us." reported Th'etonnor.

"Scan them." ordered Trent.

"Scanning." Th'etonnor replied. His console beeped once it was finished. "There are 24 fighters coming at us. They are armed with lasers."

"Lasers?" asked Aldrin. "Aren't they obsolete?"

"Yes they are." answered Horan. "Lasers are so ineffective against a modern starship that our navigational deflector is able to block them."

"Captain, the fighters appear to have no shields." added Th'etonnor. "If we use the phasers at normal power to defend ourselves, they will be instantly destroyed."

"Well, there appears to be no way to negotiate with them for now." commented Trent. "Set phasers to 1⁄2 power, raise shields and engage to disable."

"Aye captain." replied Th'etonnor. He pressed several buttons on his console and before long, the Arizona was ready to diffuse the suddenly volatile situation it was in.


	3. Chapter 3: First Engagements

Chapter 3: First Engagements

**Engagement 1: Engagement in the Ivor System**

**United Federation of Planets**

Ship/s: USS Arizona

Class: Galaxy Venture Refit

Maximum combat speed: warp 9.7

Armament: 14 Type X Phaser banks, 2 torpedo launchers, 250 Photon Torpedoes, 50 Quantum Torpedoes

Weapons firing arcs: Forward, Aft, Starboard, Port, Dorsal, Ventral

Auxiliary craft: 8 shuttlecraft, 1 Danube Class Runabout

**Galactic Empire**

Ship/s: ISD Devastator

Class: Imperial 1

Maximum combat speed: MGLT 60

Armament: 75 turbolaser cannons (turret based), 60 ion cannons.

Weapons layout: Forward, Starboard, Port, Dorsal

Auxiliary craft: 72 TIE fighters, 8 Lambda class shuttles, 15 Troop Transports

* * *

"_This is Devastator TIE group 1. We'll be in weapons range of the target in two minutes."_ announced the leader of the fighters over the intercom.

"Understood Group 1." replied Kerala. "Remember to target any areas you could consider to be a weapon or propulsion of any sort."

"_Understood Devastator. TIE group 1 out."_responded the leader before he ended to transmission to focus on their new target.

"Such a pity. The rebels don't seem to have enough fighters to go around." commented Kerala as he walked over to Vader. "I was expecting a wave of fighters right now to begin attacking our own fighters, but this might just be an unarmed scout ship."

"Do not underestimate this new enemy's capabilities Kerala." coldly responded Vader. "There is a reason why I ordered those fighters after the Rebel ship."

"And what are we to do about the Tantive IV?" asked Kerala. "After all this new enemy must be so to warrant turning our attention from th-"

He gasped at his throat as he suddenly felt a sort of force around his neck. It was making it difficult for him to breath almost. He tried to speak further, but couldn't; the force had a chokehold on him.

He fell to his knees, holding his throat while trying to breathe. Vader must've been using his mysterious 'force' abilities on him. He looked up to confirm his suspicions; vader was indeed holding his hand in a chokehold position, aimed at his throat.

He almost looked like he was about to close his hand into a fist, but then he suddenly released it, leaving Kerala gasping on the ground.

"Next time you question my orders again you will not survive another force-choke." vader warned. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, my Lord." weakly replied Kerala. He got up and hurried away from Vader and moved to stand above the fighter operations station in left trench on the bridge.

"Fighters are engaging in 10 seconds." announced the lieutenant at fighter operations. Everyone that could see out the bridge windows looked up at what they expected to be a minor detour from their current operation. The fighters opened fire with their twin laser cannons on the Arizona...only for their shots to be harmlessly absorbed by the shields.

"_TIE group 1 to Devastator. We're unable to penetrate the shields of the Rebel starship. Looking for-" _was all the group leader could say before the Arizona fired several beams of energy at different fighters, including the group leader's fighter. The Arizona continually fired on the other fighters, eliminating each in one shot as they attempted to go to the rear, where they thought they would find a blind spot in the Arizona's weapons, shields or both. However, they quickly found that the Arizona wasn't lacking in either area at the rear.

"Establish contact with another fighter." ordered Kerala. Pretty quickly there was another TIE fighter on the intercom.

"_We've lost 15 fighters so far. They have some sort of energy beam that is capable of disabling our fighters in one shot." _reported the new TIE fighter. "_Our weapons are incapable of penetrating their shields even with simultaneous firing. Their weapons can hit us at all angles. Requesting additional fig-"_

He was suddenly cut off when the Arizona fired the energy weapon at his and the remaining fighters, disabling it's ability to do anything by provide life support to it's pilot.

"My lord, the Arizona is hailing us." announced the comms officer. "Should we respond?"

"Open a visual communications channel." Ordered Vader, who had been watching the entire incident from behind, almost as if he felt something was horribly wrong with their circumstances.

"Yes my Lord." replied the officer. He pushed a few buttons and Captain Trent once again appeared on the viewer of the Devastator, which was at the back of the bridge. Vader and Kerala both turned around to face him.

"_That was only half powered phasers." _Announced Trent. "_We have additional ships on their way. Cease hostilities, or I'd hate to have to tell Starfleet Command that we found an aggressive state from another universe with easy access to Federation space."_

"We see your immense power compared to our fighters." replied Vader. "But they were our fighters, who were expecting a low powered scoutship. It's clear to me that your ship has many amenities that we could use in our fight against the rebel alliance. Surrender immediately, and we will peacefully ask for the technologies."

"_I'm afraid I can't just give you our technology." _responded Trent. "_We have a directive that prevents us from interfering in another culture's development that isn't as advanced as us."_

"Well, then you could surely destroy the Rebel Starship close to us and then come with us to help our fight." proposed Vader.

"_Our prime directive prevents that as well."_ answered Trent. "_And judging by your instant jump to violence, I'm not sure whether to trust you or not."_

"Very well then." Vader said with a wheeze of his respirator. "If you will not assist us in our plight then you must die alongside the rebels!"

* * *

The still yet unidentified man cut the channel as Trent looked on to the Devastator, now back on the viewscreen. He wasn't happy with the outcome of the recent conversation, and knew that this would end up in a war of some form. But deep down, he still hoped for peace, and felt so sorry that people could be so violent for no reason.

"How long until or reinforcements arrive?" asked Trent.

"Crazy Horse will arrive in about 30 minutes." responded Horan. "Galway will be here in 20 minutes. Command's also sending the USS Enterprise to us; she'll be here in 10 hours though"

"So they considered this to be of enough importance to send the flagship of the Federation." remarked Aldrin. "I wonder what Picard will make of the situation."

"Well, until they get here we're going to have to make do with what we've got." reaffirmed Trent. "Status of the enemy vessel?"

"They are powering up weapons and raising shields." replied Th'etonnor. "They're also putting a tractor beam on the other vessel. They're moving it in front of them"

"They're going to use it as a meat shield." figured Aldrin.

"Horan, what was that weakness you were going to mention earlier?" asked Trent.

"Their shields, unlike ours, are emitted from two domes on the top of the large structure towards the rear of the vessel." explained Horan. "These domes, however, are unprotected themselves. A single hit on each from our phasers should be enough to destroy them."

"Bring phasers to full power." ordered Trent. "Target the shield domes with phasers and fire at will."

"Aye sir." Responded Th'etonnor. "Engaging target at 200 Kilometers distance."

"Moving laterally to give us a clear shot at the domes." added Hawk.

The Arizona rose vertically in space, giving it's lower saucer phaser array a line of site at the Devastator, above the Tantive IV. Two pulses of energy were seen travelling along the array from each end, before meeting in the middle, forming a constant stream of nadion particles that moved to near light speeds. The beam travelled through space until it reached the Devastator, cutting through the starboard shield dome as if it was made of paper.

With that dome gone, the Arizona targeted the port shield dome. Once again, the unprotected shield dome exploded as soon as the phaser beam hit it, causing the Devastator to start to go down vertically in retreat.

"Why haven't they retaliated yet?" asked Aldrin in a confused tone of voice. "Surely that would cause some sort of aggressive reaction."

"It could be possible that their weapons are limited by range." suggested Horan. "My scans of their weapons show that, while they are plasma based, they may be actually propelled by the bolts of energy they make, thereby making the weapons lose power over a distance."

"Or we just hit them in a soft spot." added Hawk, who had been sitting there quietly waiting for a chance to input something. "Who knows, they could've been more than just deflector shield generators."

"At this stage, anything is possible." Begun Trent. "We keep on asking questions and trying to negotiate with the larger ship, but they keep on retaliating for no apparent reason."

"Are you suggesting we steal the ship they have in their tractor beam?" Asked Aldrin.

"You took the words right out of my mouth." Replied Trent. "Th'etonnor, target the source of the tractor beam and lock onto the smaller ship with ours."

"Aye Captain." Replied Th'etonnor.

"Bridge to engineering," called Aldrin through the intercom system, "prepare to encase the smaller vessel in our shields and warp field."

"_Understood bridge." _Replied T'pon through the intercom. "_Please note though that we will have to lower the shields for roughly 4.7 seconds in order to encompass the smaller vessel"_

"Noted engineering." Replied Aldrin. "Bridge out."

"Hawk, what do you reckon their maneuverability is?" Asked Trent.

"Compared to ours? Nowhere near as good." Replied Hawk. "The Arizona is less than half the size of that monstrosity, so I'd say it'd take a lot of effort to move that ship even 10 degrees in any direction."

"Use attack pattern picard 3." Ordered Trent. "Keep us a minimum 50 Kilometeres away from them and fire to disable."

"Aye sir." responded Th'etonnor and Hawk almost in unison.

The Arizona started moving forwards, towards the Devastator. The Devastator lay still, waiting for the Arizona to get in range of it's turbolaser batteries, slowly moving the Tantive IV below, into it's hangar bay. The Devastator slowly retreated as fast as it's sub-light reversing thrusters would allow, but in the end, the Arizona caught up with her.

The Arizona then fired two phaser beams from it's upper and lower phaser arrays. These reached the Devastator in no time, and scarred the armored surface of the once proud battleship. The Devastator retaliated with a volley of turbolasers and ion cannons, to which the Arizona turned to it's right. It then went to warp for a split second, leaving the volley the Devastator fired to dissipate into nothingness across the vastness of space.

The Arizona continuously repeated this, turning in a random direction and then going to warp, avoiding the Devastator's shots, before firing it's phasers at the Devastator, scarring the hull. Occasionally a random shot from the Devastator would hit, causing the shields of the Arizona to flare blue upon contact. However, the Devastator quickly found out that their ion cannons were useless, as the Arizona showed no signs of a power drain in it's movement or it's attack.

* * *

On the Devastator, the situation was shaky at best. The bridge shook all the time, sparks were flying and officers were being thrown back from their controls. Kerala was leaning on one of the control panels at the front of the bridge, watching as the Arizona avoided almost every shot the Devastator fired. A normal rebel ship would be cut to pieces by this amount of firepower by now, but this new ship didn't look like it had ever been hit at all. Hell, the ship looked almost brand new in his mind, the hull clean and unscarred compared to any ship he'd seen. And compared to all the ships he'd seen before, this one looked as if it was designed to be beautiful. The large saucer on the relatively small neck made it look as if the whole thing was unbalanced, and could fall apart at any moment. He wondered how the Rebels had managed to get their hands on such a ship, and where it was built so they could take it's secrets for their own.

"Sir, tractor beam has been disabled!" yelled an officer over the confusion, interrupting Kerala's thoughts. "The Arizona is putting it's tractor beam on the Tantive IV."

"So they are rebels!" commented Vader, walking up to the window and pointing at the Arizona. "I want them destroyed now!" He watched helplessly as the Arizona pulled the Tantive IV away from the underside of the Star Destroyer and into a position under the saucer.

"My lord, the enemy vessel appears to be lowering shields!" Announced an officer in the lower trench.

"Fire at will!" Cried Vader.

The Devastator unleashed a fury of turbo lasers and ion cannons at the Arizona. For the 4.7 seconds the shields were down, the Arizona was hit hard. Some of the shots went through the massive gaps in the structure, but others hit the now exposed port nacelle, which started losing colour and leaking a blue plasma. Some more hit the neck, causing unknown damage from the Devastator's perspective and scarring the surface of the once pristine starship.

Then suddenly the shields went back up, saving the hull and other vital systems from further abuse. The Arizona weakly made a hard turn to starboard, then enveloped itself and the Tantive IV in a translucent beige energy field, which quickly disappeared. Before anyone could ask, the Arizona and the Tantive IV suddenly started to stretch out into the distance before snapping forward and disappearing in a flash of light.

"My lord, the Arizona and the Tantive IV have moved out of visual range." Reported Kerala after he quickly checked with one of the crewmen in the right trench of the bridge. "Should we attempt to pursue?"

"That would be pointless." Replied Vader. "They could be anywhere right now, and we're in no shape to fight something with that sort of ability alone. Until we're fully repaired, we need to fortify our position in this system. Have a series of probes launched, begin search and rescue for the TIE fighters and send a message through the anomaly for more ships to this area."

"My lord, it appears that the hangar bay doors are fused." commented Kerala. "They must've hit that when they took out the tractor beam emitters."

"Divert our repair efforts to the hangar doors." ordered Vader. "Let me know when repairs to the hanger bay are complete, so that we may launch the probes and recover our fighters."

And so the Devastator stood still in space. The scars from her engagement with the Arizona were prominent, black marking covering the hull in thin, long strips where she had been hit. The two deflector domes on top of her were completely destroyed, smouldering wrecks in their place. In the loneliness of space, the Devastator lay in need of recuperation.


	4. Chapter 4: A Reprieve

Chapter 4: A Reprieve

"Approaching Ivor prime now captain." Announced Hawk as the Arizona rapidly approached the dead world. This planet, home to once a thriving federation colony, was now a lifeless husk, the site of the colony a gaping crater surrounded by the rapidly re-approaching native vegetation.

"Move us to the rendezvous point Lieutenant." ordered Trent, his hands still gripping his chair from the violent shaking caused by the Devastator's energy weapons. While the ship had luckily survived it's short no shields encounter, it had left it with deep battle scars similar to what it had inflicted to the Devastator. "What's the full damage report like?"

"It appears that the port nacelle has a major plasma leak, limiting us to warp 6." reported The'tonnor. "We've got casualties on decks 13 through 16, and the saucer separation mechanism is fused, alongside damage to the primary sensor array."

"That limits us to scanning within a planetary radius." commented Aldrin.

"Where's the Crazy Horse and the Galway?" asked Trent.

"Crazy Horse should still be 10 minutes away." replied Horan. "Galway however should be arriving… now."

As he finished his sentence, the USS Galway dropped out of warp close to the Arizona. The Galway, being an Akira Class, was about two thirds the size of the Arizona, but was no less powerful. The Galway, unlike the Arizona, had a more torpedo based weapons system, with a total of 15 torpedo launchers in it's upper weapons pod. The Galway also possessed immunity from the Breen energy dampening weapon but also had ablative armour all over the hull, adding another layer of protection to the catamaran-style structure of the ship.

"Galway is hailing us." Announced The'tonnor.

"Onscreen." Ordered Trent. As soon as he said that, the face of Arnold Styles, Captain of the Galway, appeared on the view screen with his bustling bridge behind him.

"_Captain Trent! Long time no see."_ Started Styles. "_What sort of mess have you gotten yourself into this time?"_

"The one where we find someone who wants to be our enemy come through an anomaly." Replied Trent. "Speaking of which, could you lend us a hand with repairs?"

"_Of course."_ Answered Styles. "_After all if this enemy is as aggressive as you say they are, we're going to need as much muscle as we can get."_

"And as much help as well." Continued Trent.

"We picked up a small corvette style ship while we were getting away from them. It appears the larger ship was pursuing it for some reason.", and wanted it destroyed to the point where it used it as a shield and tried to take it from us."

"_An interesting predicament."_ replied Styles. "_Have you tried hailing it yet?"_

"We hailed it while we were making our way here." answered Trent. "The ship didn't respond, however, we did detect a damaged ion reactor when we scanned it. We're planning on beaming over to the vessel once we've started repairs."

"_Well, best not to delay you further."_ Remarked Styles. "_I'll beam aboard a few engineering teams to your ship."_

"Thanks Styles." Thanked Trent. "I owe you one now."

"_No worries captain."_ Replied Styles. "_Just buy me a few drinks at Starbase 75 and you'll be good."_

"Understood. Arizona out." Finished Trent. Styles smiled as the channel closed.

"Aldrin, take an away team to the unidentified vessel." Trent requested. "Search for survivors and if there are any, take them back to the Arizona for treatment."

"Aye sir." Replied Aldrin. She started walking off the bridge into the turbolift. "The'tonnor, Horan, you're with me." She ordered while doing so. She tapped her combadge and spoke "Chief Medical Officer Dolovain report to the transporter room."

Aldrin, The'tonnor and Horan all walked into the turbolift one by one, and the doors hissed shut before taking them to their destination.

* * *

Princess Leia was lying on the ground, crushed under a piece of debris. Around her, fires were burning on the walls and smoke hung on the roof. In front of her, was R2-D2, an astromech droid who had been servicing her family for as long as she could remember. He whistles and beeped as he tried to wake her up, but all she could hear was a throbbing sound in her head, almost muting out any sounds around her.

She softly heard a strange humming noise, before a flurry of beeping from R2 warning her that someone unfamiliar was approaching.

Suddenly, the massive weight on her back was gone. She felt a hand on her neck, checking for a pulse, before recognising the sound of a person saying "I've found a survivor here!"

The sounds of multiple footsteps and the sound of R2 trying to get them away from her followed, before suddenly R2 stopped being angry at them and instead started describing what happened. All through this she tried to move, but found herself nearly paralysed, only able to see things blurred.

She felt her body being turned so she was face up to the ceiling. Through her blurred vision, she saw what appeared to be people, but couldn't quite make out their faces. They were all wearing black jumpsuits, with grey shoulders and what looked to be varying colours at the neck, although she couldn't quite piece together which ones they were at the time. She felt her body being lifted up off the ground, before suddenly everything went black.

When she woke up, she saw a human face and an alien face looking down at her. She startled up at the unfamiliar yet human-coloured being that looked on her, sitting up in the bed she now found herself in.

"Who are you and what do you want?" She asked aggressively.

"Relax we don't mean to harm you." Immediately responded the human. He appeared to be a male, in his late 30's with brownish hair and a recently shaven face.

"I'm Captain Darius Trent of the United Federation of Planets." The man identified. "You're on the U.S.S. Arizona, in a universe completely different to your own."

"Don't you lie to me!" Demanded Leia. "I know what the Imperials do when they interrogate people. If this is some sort of new interrogation method, you'll find it won't work on me."

"I can assure you, this is not a deception my lady." Replied a familiar voice. It was C-3PO, another droid in Leia's service. "These people are telling the truth."

"3PO?" Responded a surprised Leia. "What are you doing here?"

"These people found me damaged aboard the Tantive, my lady." Answered 3PO. "They has the kindness within them to repair me and all the other droids on our ship, although I didn't like how they called me and R2 'basic' compared to the other droids they have."

"What happened to us?" Asked Leia. "The last thing I remember was waiting for R2 in the side corridor before something fell on me."

"Our ship was disabled by the Devastator." Explained 3PO. "However, we fell through an anomaly before the Devastator could get a tractor beam on us. We then ended up in a completely different universe to our own, where the Arizona saved us and is now working to repair us alongside two other vessels in the same government."

"What about the plans for the Death Star?" Questioned Leia.

"You mean the schematics for the massive superweapon codenamed Stardust?" Replied Trent. "We found them on a hard drive on the floor next to you. We replicated an interface panel to read it and found the plans on that. 3PO here and his little blue friend described it's significance to us."

"Wait, you can understand droidspeak?" Asked Leia suprisedly.

"Our universal translator has a bit of trouble at first, but eventually got the hang of it." Answered Trent. "Speaking of which the one you called R2-D2 is now working with our engineers on your ship to repair it."

"Can I go see him?" Asked Leia.

"Not right now." Replied the Alien. "Sorry, I'm Dolovain, Chief Medical Officer of the Arizona. You're condition is stable for now, but I'm afraid you're going to have to stay on the Arizona for now. You suffered a pretty severe spinal injury, and while modern medicine works like a charm, we can't have you in an environment like the state your ships in right now. You're free to use the facilities aboard the Arizona, such as the holodeck and the gymnasium. Perhaps the captain will give you a tour of the ship later."

"Perhaps." Replied Leia in an upset monotone.

"Well, if you feel okay to leave sickbay now, I have a crew member outside waiting to take you to your guest quarters." Said Trent. "If you want to go there now, I can also have any personal items on your ship taken there as well."

"I think I'll just relax in my quarters for now." Replied Leia. "If I need anything I'll tell you."

"Ok then." Finished Trent. He walked away from them into another room whilst tapping on the left side of his chest and talking into it.

Leia got fully off and sat on the edge of the biobed. Just before she got off though, she turned to Dolovain, who was now walking over to what was to her a seemingly massive screen.

"Is this a normal day for you... Dolovain your name was?" Asked Leia.

"Oh it hardly is." Answered Dolovain. "This ship actually hadn't seen combat for over 5 years before today."

"Really?" Replied Leia with surprise. "Where I come from, there's a massive civil war going on."

"So I heard." Dolovain Said. "Your robot friends told us everything we need to know about the political situation in your universe."

"Ok then." Finished Leia. She got out of her bed and started walking towards the door.


	5. Chapter 5: New Friends

Chapter 5: New Friends

Ensign Hawk stood outside the door to the medical bay. She had been ordered by Captain Trent to escort the female who had been identified as Princess Leia Organia to her diplomatic guest quarters. Normally Hawk would be playing pool down in the recreation room with the rest of the bridge crew, but for the past 7 hours she had been running around trying to manage the 1,000 people on this ship to fix both the Arizona and the newly identified Tantive IV. She started to think back to how she managed to get such a high ranking position on a starship, and how she ended up in the position she was in.

Her parents were both on the USS Melbourne when it was reassigned to combat the borg at Wolf 359. The Melbourne was destroyed by the Borg with all hands, leaving her 10 year old self and her 12 year old brother Sean orphans. They lived with their grandparents for a while before her brother attended Starfleet Academy, with her following suit 4 years after. It was then that the borg's second incursion occurred, but this time the borg came with a plan B; they sent a ship back in time to assimilate earth in it's infancy. The Enterprise E, being caught in the wake of the temporal vortex, went back in time with the borg ship to stop it from assimilating earth. They succeeded in destroying the borg ship, but not before the borg began assimilating the Enterprise itself, assimilating nearly half the crew before they were stopped. Among that half was Lieutenant Sean Hawk, who was assimilated attempting to stop the Borg from contacting the Borg of that era. After that incident, Sabrina went on a downward spiral, repeatedly showing up to class drunk or unprepared and nearly failing her 3rd year at the academy. It was Captain Trent, posted at Starfleet Command before taking the Arizona, who helped her out of that state, encouraging her to get back in shape and succeed near the top of her class, promising her a chance on one of the most prominent classes of ship that Starfleet fielded.

A few years after the Dominion War, Sabrina, who had been promoted to Lieutenant following the war, was selected by Trent as the Head of Operations on the Arizona, fulfilling the promise he made her. Although the Arizona has been bogged down with minor work better suited to older Miranda and Constellation Class starships, she enjoyed being a senior officer on a Galaxy Class ship, and considered Trent and Aldrin as parental figures, guiding her where her parents couldn't.

A combadge chirp snapped her out of thought.

"Trent to Hawk." Came through the small locator/communicator device on the left side of her chest. She immediately tapped it and replied "Hawk here."

"Our guest is awake and is about to go to her quarters." Revealed Trent. "I want you to escort her there."

"Aye sir." Answered Hawk.

"And Sabrina," added Trent. "Try and create some small talk with her. We want her as an ally so we can figure out the best solution to this issue."

"Yes captain." Replied Hawk. "I won't let you down."

"Good to know. Trent out." Ended Trent as the communicator signalled the termination of the connection between the two of them.

Hawk straightened her uniform out, preparing herself to take this woman to her guest quarters on deck 7. She eagerly awaited her arrival, in an attempt to try to exhibit Starfleet's values in front of a new culture.

Almost automatically, the doors to the medical bay opened up to reveal a human woman, dressed in Federation sickbay clothes and looking slightly disappointed about her predicament.

"Hi there! I'm Lieutenant Hawk, head of operations on the USS Arizona!" Brightly welcomed Hawk. "I'm here to escort you to your quarters.

"Good." Answered the woman. "I'm Princess Leia Organa of Organia."

"Nice to meet you Leia. If you'll follow me?" Asked Hawk.

"Will do." Replied Leia. They both walked together, with Hawk being especially bright.

"So what sort of ship is this?" Asked Leia. "The color's sort of beige ish here."

"This ship is a Galaxy Class, one of the largest ships Starfleet fields." Replied Hawk. "The corridors were designed to have civilians in them, but the Dominion War meant that they had to leave."

"These ships can have children on them?" Suprisedly Asked Leia.

"Yes they can." Answered Hawk. "Before the war these ships were described as cities in space."

"Huh." Commented Leia. "And what did they actually do?"

"Before the war Starfleet only had 6 Galaxy Class ships, and they were sent to the frontier of space." Continued Hawk. "Now I believe there's upward of about 50 odd in the fleet all serving various rolls, although some of them actually aren't completed. The war forced us to rush ships to the frontline."

"Is that so?" questioned Leia. "How many ships are there actually in this Federation of yours?"

"Starfleet maintains and registers about 3,000 starships across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants." Explained Hawk. "They're mostly spread out, so it's hard to scrap a last-minute fleet together. But in the war we had fleets numbering in the thousands fighting. What about your universe?"

"I can assume it's safe to talk about the empire and our rebellion?" Asked Leia.

"Oh yes, go ahead." answered Hawk.

"Well, in my universe ships don't have this sort of homey look to them." Started Leia. "The Galactic Empire, the people who use that ship you just fought possess about 20,000 more of those, and they're spread out across the galaxy, each supervising 1 sector. You rarely see them gathering together."

"Sounds like our Constitution classes back in the 23rd century." Analogised Hawk. "Sorry I know you probably don't understand the analogy. The Constitution class starship was a ship in the 23rd century that was the top line of ship at the time. They were the most prestigious vessel someone could serve on, and were often sent deep into uncharted space. They rarely ever met though. I think there are a few still in service today."

"Well, for a start the analogy's kinda off." Replied Leia. "The ships that the empire use have never been designed for exploration in particular, because the majority of the galaxy has already been charted."

"Really?" questioned Hawk. "We've only managed to chart around ¼ of our galaxy."

And the duo continued talking through the corridor.

* * *

On the Tantive IV, repair crews were busy replicating spare parts, figuring out alien technology and attempting to connect with the new crew. Amongst this, Chief engineer T'pon and R2-D2 were busy working on the ship's ion reactor, with T'pon following basic Starfleet protocol on the handling of ion reactors.

"And so you say that your ship doesn't use an ion reactor?"questioned R2, the universal translator turning his voice from a series of beeps and whistles into a language T'pon could understand.

"That is correct." answered T'pon. "The Arizona uses a matter/antimatter reaction assembly to power propulsion and other vital systems, like almost all ships in this area of the galaxy."

"Interesting." commented R2. "And what about the massive blue and red pods at the rear of your ships?"

"Those are the warp nacelles, our method of faster than light travel." replied T'pon. "The nacelles physically bend space, allowing us to relatively travel faster than light without breaking the laws of physics."

"That sounds very simple compared to our form of propulsion." commented R2. "Our FTL systems involve pushing the ship into a completely separate dimension of space, called hyperspace, where we can then travel faster than light."

"Fascinating." T'pon replied with bewilderment. "Such a method of propulsion is hypothetical, yet it is possible. At what speed is a ship known to travel at in this hyperspace?"

"A hyperspace journey is known to take hours due to having to maneuver out of the way of objects." answered R2. "In hyperspace, every real object casts a mass shadow in hyperspace. Therefore, a small asteroid in the path of a vessel in hyperspace is enough to destroy the vessel. There are specific routes for hyperspace travellers which are usually void of dangerous objects, although a journey in hyperspace is never in a straight line."

"Your description of hyperspace sounds like what we call subspace." commented T'pon. "We only use subspace for communications purposes though, and a message sent in subspace is a lot slower than what you describe a hyperspace journey to be."

"But if our hyperspace is similar to your subspace," proposed R2, "then wouldn't we be able to modify a subspace transceiver on one of your ships to be able to detect vessels in hyperspace?"

"You may be onto something R2." replied T'pon. "I will present this to the captain as soon as repairs to this reactor are completed."

"Oh don't worry about the repairs." Said R2. "I've got everything under control here. You can go and work on the 'hyperspace scanner'."

"Thank you R2." Thanked T'pon. "I will endeavour to work quickly so we can resolve this conflict immediately." T'pon got up from the crouched position he was in next to R2, and walked towards the cargo bay, which had been selected as a temporary beam in site for the Arizona's crew and equipment. He tapped on his combadge, signalling the Arizona for transport, before being claimed by a blue light, turning his body into a complex geometric equation and making him appear to fade away into nothingness.

* * *

On the edge of the system, space was as quiet as it usually was. No sound could be heard, as the vacuum of space prevents the travel of sound. But no matter what properties space possesed, it wasn't enough to stop the 5 star destroyers now slowly moving together in line.

In the middle of these destroyers was the Devastator. Still scarred from it's battle with the Arizona, the Devastator now had one temporary shield dome in place of the destroyed port shield dome, and the hull was slowly being patched in the areas where there had been hull breaches. The ship had already picked up the TIE fighters laying scattered around the area it had fought the Arizona, and was now in the process of scanning the system and the surrounding space for hyperspace routes.

On the bridge of the Devastator, Darth Vader stood by the scanner console, awaiting reports from the probes it had sent out earlier. The ship itself had already managed to gather that the system it was in was definitely not in the galaxy it was familiar with. It was possible that the Devastator had found itself deep in the Unknown regions of the galaxy, but even predictions made by imperial scientists of the Star layout beyond were greatly inaccurate, dumbfounding the limited scientists aboard the Devastator.

"My lord, we can now receive transmissions through the anomaly." Reported Kerala, who had just walked back onto the bridge after spending a few hours in engineering overseeing the repairs. "The emperor would like a word with you."

"Patch it through to my chambers, I'll rejoin you once it is complete." Replied Vader.

"Yes my lord." Answered Kerala. He immediately walked to the communications officer to make the necessary arrangements, while Vader walked out of the bridge to deal with the emperor.

Minutes later, Vader was sitting in his giant sleeping pod, similar to the one he had on the Super Star Destroyer Executor. In front of him, the giant holographic head of Emperor Palpatine flickered in front of him, the bluish hue of the transmission giving the emperor a calming but chilly feeling to be talking to.

"Lord Vader." Greeted Palpaltine.

"Emperor." Responded Vader.

"I can feel a great disturbance in the force my apprentice." Stated Palpaltine. "Something has occurred that should not have."

"I feel it to." Replied Vader. "I felt it as soon as the Tantive disappeared into that anomaly."

"Regarding of which, your mission parameters have changed." Continued Palpaltine. "The ship you call the Arizona has many capabilities that the empire could put to great use. Not only are you to destroy the Tantive IV now, but you are also to capture the Arizona by any means necessary."

"Understood my Emperor." Answered Vader. "I will not disappoint you."

"Very well then." Ended Palpaltine. He closed the channel as the holographic image faded from sight, leaving the grey textured wall behind it.

"My lord, we found something interesting." Kerala said through Vader's personal intercom.

"I'll be up there in a minute." Vader Replied. He got out of his pod and headed out of the door.

"You said you found something?" Asked Vader to Kerala as he walked on the bridge.

"Yes we did." Kerala Replied with an insidious attitude. "Look over here."

He gestured towards the small screen next to the probe control console. On the screen was a live feed of the droid which had been sent to map out the only planet in the system. It displayed the image of the USS Arizona, alongside 2 other smaller vessels of probably the same origin. One had a catamaran style shape to it and had the name 'USS Galway' on the hull. The other was evidently of an older design era and had the name 'USS Crazy Horse' on the hull. Beside the was a small blockade runner, evidently the Tantive IV.

"That's them!" Vader exclaimed. "Have the necessary hyperspace routes been mapped yet?"

"Not yet." Answered Kerala. "That probe took a rather irregular path to get to the planet, it'll take probably half an hour for the computer to estimate a hyperspace route we can take.

"Very well then." Replied Vader. "Do everything you can to keep that probe hidden Commander. I want to keep the element of surprise on our side."

"Yes my lord." Replied Kerala. "It will be done."

"Good." Ended Vader. He walked off the bridge, wheezing in his usual manner as he did so.

And as the event finished, the Star destroyers all stopped in space. On the Devastator, crews ran around attempting to plot the best hyperspace route for the ships to take. The hunter had found its prey, and now lay stalking it.


	6. Chapter 6: A Warning

Chapter 6: A Warning

"Captain, I'm detecting something strange near our position." Called out Horan from his station on the bridge. He had been sitting at his science station, trying to make sense of this 'hyperspace scanner' that Commander T'pon had been explaining to him, and the physics of pushing a ship into subspace, when his console had gone off detecting a perimeter alert.

"Yes what is it?" Trent asked as he got up from his command chair to look at Horan's station.

"A small metallic object… oh wait a minute it just vanished." answered Horan, looking slightly bewildered at this turn of events. "I could almost swear there was something there."

"Where was the position of the object when you last saw it?" Trent Queried.

"It was roughly 10,000 Kilometers away." Replied Horan. "Just inside visual range and far within our sensor range."

"Are there any objects in that area that could cloud our sensors at that range?" Asked Trent.

"There is a class 4 comet in that general area." answered Horan. "Comet Ivor Alpha-7, currently in it's trailing state. It will pass our location within 20 minutes."

"What's the status of the Devastator Th'etonnor?" Asked Trent.

"They appear to have called an additional 4 vessels to their position of the same design." answered Th'etonnor. "I'm detecting a continuous link between the Devastator and that comet."

"It's most likely that the object you found is from the Devastator Horan," stated Trent, "and they are using it right now to spy on us."

"That is a very likely case." Concluded Horan. "Based on our combat with them before, I think that their range is limited to roughly 100 Kilometers, and they possess no computerized targeting system. It would be evident that they have to rely on easy to manufacture probes in order to get their way around."

"Th'etonnor, have the Princess brought up here." Ordered Trent. "Put us on yellow alert and recommend that the Galway and the Crazy Horse do the same."

"Aye sir." Replied Th'etonnor. He tapped a few buttons and after a few minutes, Princess Leia was on the bridge of the Arizona.

"I tell you what, this ship is more than good enough to serve a...woah" commented Leia as she walked on the bridge, suddenly shocked at the size of it. "The bridge of the Tantive is nowhere near the size of this bridge."

"Yes, it is." replied Trent. "However, we have something more important than the layout of the ship."

He gestured to one of the science stations at the back. "We picked up a small metallic object a few minutes ago. Evidence shows that it's a probe of unknown design origin, evidently from the Devastator. The Devastator is communicating with the probe, and the probe is sending back a series of mathematical equations we intercepted. We can't figure out if it's a code of some sort, as it doesn't conform to any mathematical code used by our galaxy"

"Those aren't in code, what you're seeing is not a language of sorts." answered Leia. "Those are hyperspace equations."

"So you're saying that the probe is merely telling the Devastator the fastest way it can get here?" asked Trent.

"I'm afraid so." replied Leia. "And now there's 5 star destroyers here, they'll stop at nothing to destroy us and all the forces here."

"Captain, the Enterprise is signalling us." called out Th'etonnor. "They report a probe of unknown design appeared out of nowhere and scanned them. When they put a tractor beam on it, it exploded."

"What's their status?" asked Trent out of fear.

"The Enterprise was undamaged by the explosion, but says they'll be here in about 25 minutes." Answered Th'etonnor. "They've also routed a Defiant class, the USS Moscow to us, and she'll be here in 15 minutes."

"Is she fitted with a cloaking device?" Asked Trent.

"As far as I can tell, the USS Moscow looks like it's one of only 4 Defiant class ships that can cloak." Answered Th'etonnor.

"Have her cloak and await instructions as soon as she gets here." Ordered Trent. "Leia, where do you reckon the Devastator would be at with it's equations?"

"It's a bit hard to tell from this point, but I'd say we've got another 20 minutes before they're right at our doorstep." Replied Leia

"Understood." Decisively answered Trent, thinking on the spot for a few seconds. "Th'etonnor, take the ship to red alert. Tell the others to do so as well, we have evidence to believe that the Imperials are about to launch an assault on us. Signal Commander Aldrin and the rest of the command crew back here as well."

"Yes sir." Responded Th'etonnor. He pressed a few buttons and quickly, the ship's interior darkened, the computer systems suddenly changed to a red-based colour and a robotic klaxon noise echoed throughout the ship.

"Do your ships posses any fighters?" Asked Leia out of curiosity.

"The USS Galway used to have fighters on board during the Dominion War, but they were reassigned to starbase 75 after the war finished." answered Trent. "We don't need them against their fighter anyway, I think their first attack on us made that clear." He walked back to his command chair, knowing the danger that was now posing against him. He'd seen his fair share of life or death scenarios in the past, but this one felt different somehow, almost as if it was… wrong in a sense, that these ships should never have come into contact with one another. Nevertheless, he swore an oath as a Starfleet officer, and he was going to maintain that oath no matter what happened.

* * *

On the Devastator, things were just as busy. With gunnery crews returning to their stations in preparation for the upcoming attack, engineering crews quickly slapping together last minute repairs in the hopes that the ship would not be hit as heavily as it was in the first engagement now that it had 4 other ships defending it. With the usual amount of Imperial self-confidence, the crew genuinely believed that it would succeed and live up to the Emperor.

On the bridge, Darth Vader looked down on his crew as he wheezed to breathe. His charred and broken smile hid behind his black mask as he thought to himself '_There's no way they'll survive this attack.'_ After all, no force in the entire galaxy, not even the rebels, had managed to survive a flight of 3 star destroyers. Surely these more advanced ships would be no match for 5?

And yet as he thought this, he also began to doubt their chances for success; could they end up being no match for these ships? Were we even meant to come across these ships, or were there paths interlinked by the force. He wasn't sure, but the force made him feel as if they shouldn't even be here in the first place. Nevertheless, he had his orders; he was to destroy the rebels and capture the Arizona for study purposes.

"My lord, there's… oh never mind it was a mistake." called out the officer currently manning the probes.

"What did you say?" coldly queried Vader, his wheezed breathing sending chills of fear down the officer's neck.

"Oh it's nothing." quickly answered the officer. "The probe detected another blockade runner sized starship join them temporarily, but then it disappeared as soon as it appeared. I think it was a sensor ghost."

"It'd better be, or your life and everyone else's on this ship is in your hands."

"...Yes my lord." quietly replied the officer. He shrank back into his seat as Vader walked over to Kerala.

"Are we ready to proceed yet?" Asked Vader.

"Engine room reports hyperspace course and coordinates to be precise captain." Answered Kerala. "Without too much effort, this skirmish can be over in a matter of minutes."

"Do not underestimate the capabilities of our enemy." Cautioned Vader. "You know the capabilities of just one of their vessels."

"Yes my lord." Replied Kerala. "Regardless of which, we are ready to go now."

"Very well then." Calmly Replied Vader. "I see no reason not to continue. Engage Hyperdrive!"

With a flick of a few buttons, the ship and it's 4 counterparts entered hyperspace for a few seconds, following the carefully constructed waypoints made by the probe, before arriving at their destination within a few seconds.

The Arizona and its counterparts were now visible. They had all turned around now, and were all facing towards the Star Destroyers, with the Tantive IV hiding behind the Arizona for cover.

"My lord, they are hailing us." Reported the officer at communications.

"Put then on the viewer." Ordered Vader. He turned around to look at the view screen at the rear of the bridge to once again stare at Captain Darius Trent.

"_I'd be quick to leave if I were you."_ Stated Trent. "_You know what happened the last time we faced off."_

"And such is the reason we have returned." Smartly Replied Vader. "Surrender your vessel and the rebels to ya immediately and the other ships will be allowed to leave unharmed."

"_I'm afraid the word surrender doesn't exist in my vocabulary." _Answered Trent. "_And the rebels have claimed temporary political asylum within the Federation, which they have been given."_

"Surely my offer is far better than yours." Prodded Vader. "We get your ship and you get to keep living."

"_We'd rather die than give ourselves over to you." _Trent defiantly stated.

"Very well then. You leave me with no choice but to take your ship by force!" Declared Vader. He closed the channel and the 1st battle of the Ivor system began.


	7. Chapter 7: Battle of the Ivor System

Chapter 7: Battle of the Ivor system

**Engagement 2: 1st battle of the Ivor System**

**United Federation of Planets**

Class: Galaxy Venture Refit

Ships present: 1

Known ships: USS Arizona

Maximum combat speed: warp 9.7

Armament: 14 Type X Phaser banks, 2 torpedo launchers, 250 Photon Torpedoes, 50 Quantum Torpedoes

Weapons firing arcs: Forward, Aft, Starboard, Port, Dorsal, Ventral

Auxiliary craft: 8 shuttlecraft, 1 Danube Class Runabout

Class: Akira

Ships present: 1

Known ships: USS Galway

Maximum combat speed: warp 9.8

Armament: 6 Type X Phaser banks, 15 torpedo launchers, 200 Photon Torpedoes, 175 Quantum Torpedoes

Weapons firing arcs: Forward, Aft, Starboard, Port, Dorsal, Ventral

Auxiliary craft: 10 shuttlecraft, 5 shuttle pods (wartime variant houses 40 Peregrine Class)

Class: Excelsior

Ships present: 1

Known ships: USS Crazy Horse

Maximum combat speed: warp 9

Armament: 16 Type VIII Phaser banks, 6 torpedo launchers, 60 Photon Torpedoes, 60 Quantum Torpedoes

Weapons firing arcs: Forward, Aft, Starboard, Port, Dorsal, Ventral

Auxiliary craft: 6 shuttlecraft, 6 shuttlepods

Class: Defiant

Ships present: 1

Known ships: USS Moscow

Maximum combat speed: warp 9.6

Armament: 4 Pulse Phaser cannons, 2 Type X Phaser banks, 4 torpedo launchers, 36 Photon Torpedoes, 60 Quantum Torpedoes

Weapons firing arcs: Forward, Aft, Starboard, Port, Dorsal, Ventral

Auxiliary craft: 1 shuttlecraft, 2 shuttlepods

**Galactic Empire**

Class: Imperial 1

Ships present: 5

Known ships: ISD Devastator

Maximum combat speed: MGLT 60

Armament: 75 turbolaser cannons (turret based), 60 ion cannons.

Weapons layout: Forward, Starboard, Port, Dorsal

Auxiliary craft: 72 TIE fighters, 8 Lambda class shuttles, 15 Troop Transports

The Arizona stared down the Imperial fleet that was in front of it, a single file line of 5 Star Destroyers. Beside it were the starships Galway and Crazy Horse, both ready to fight alongside it. Inside, crew members stood still at their battle stations, awaiting orders from Captain Trent on the bridge as the corridors and rooms flashed red with danger.

On the bridge, Trent got back in his seat after trying one final time to be diplomatic with the man known as Darth Vader. His bridge crew sat around him; Aldrin was sitting to his right as his first officer, Hawk sat at flight control on the left front control seat, Th'etonnor was behind him at tactical and Horan was at the back at his science station. To his left, Princess Leia sat in what would normally be the counselor's position as a guide.

The ship suddenly shook as the Devastator and the other ships fired a full round of turbolasers at the Arizona, attempting to hit and disable the starship.

"They are concentrating their fire on us!" Reported Th'etonnor. "Shields are down to 94%!"

"Th'etonnor, target the shield generators." Ordered Trent. "Have the fleet follow our attack pattern and fire at will!"

"Aye captain." Replied Th'etonnor.

All three ships started advancing on the star destroyers. The Arizona fired a single phaser beam at the Devastator's replacement shield dome, which exploded with ease. The other ships did the same, the Galway sending a volley of photon torpedos hurling towards one of the star destroyer's command tower and the Crazy Horse taking shots with it's dual phaser banks at another ship's shield generators. The torpedoes from the Galway slammed into the domes, vaporising them in a matter/antimatter explosion, before the remainder hit the rest of the command tower, exploding upon contact and leaving a flaming wreck in it's place, the star destroyer in possession of the tower now paralysed. The remaining star destroyers fired their turbolasers at the trio of ships, some hitting and causing damage to the shields, some missing and passing through the ship's frames and into empty space.

The onslaught from the Star Destroyers didn't stop there though, as a huge swarm of TIE fighters came out of all the star destroyers, including the one disabled one. These fighters, totaling in at around 360 fighters came out of their respective ships and formed one massive group, and although lasers could do nothing against a Starfleet shield, they were all concentrating their fire on the Arizona, damaging the shields and distracting the Arizona from the Star Destroyers.

In defence, the Arizona fired a single photon torpedo at the group of fighters, which hit one and caused it to explode in the reaction between matter and antimatter. The resulting explosion vaporized the surrounding fighters and disabled countless more around the explosion, nearly halving the fighters left.

Then suddenly, the Defiant class USS Moscow decloaked underneath the furthest Star destroyer to the right. This star destroyer, already without shields from an attack by the Crazy Horse, was helpless as the Moscow pounded the exposed reactor dome beneath with phaser cannons, causing the reactor to explode, taking the entire Star Destroyer down with it.

Regardless of this loss, the Star Destroyers were pounding the Arizona, which was distracted by the fighters and still trying to get rid of them. The shields on the Arizona were weakening under their fire power, and the Arizona had to think quickly to make it out of the encounter.

Then suddenly, the USS Crazy Horse took matters into it's own hands, ramming itself into the large group of fighters. The relatively slow fighters stood no chance against the fast moving shielded hull of the Excelsior class, which crushed multiple fighters against it's secondary hull before firing phasers in all directions once in the middle of the remaining swarm, reducing the fighter count to near 0.

This however, left the Crazy Horse without shields, as the concentrated explosions against it's hull as well as the multiple impacts it sustained weakened the shields of the ship, giving the remaining fighters something to shoot at. They fired a few stray shots against the hull, before concentrating their firepower on the port nacelle, which started leaking plasma as the plasma conduits on the nacelle broke and overflowed inside the nacelle.

The Galway and the Moscow concentrated their firepower on one of the 3 remaining star destroyers. The star destroyer sent a flurry of turbolaser fire their way, which the Moscow easily avoided as the Galway took multiple hits to it's forward shields. Through the fire, the Moscow fired 4 quantum torpedoes, which slammed into the hull of the star destroyer, causing massive breaches in the hull and taking out an entire turbolaser battery. The star destroyer attempted to turn so that the turrets on the other side were facing, but before it could do that, the Galway fired a few photon torpedoes at the rear engines, disabling the star destroyer before firing a single phaser beam at life support, taking it out and leaving the crew to die before beaming on several engineering parties to take over the ship.

While all this happened, the Devastator realised that the Crazy Horse's shields were down, making it divert it's attention from the Arizona to the Crazy Horse. It started chasing the Crazy Horse as it tried to withdraw from the battle, and fired a full volley of turbo lasers at the damaged vessel. The Crazy Horse suffered multiple direct hits from the Devastator, causing several hull breaches and damaging the impulse engines of the ship before the Arizona cut off the Devastator's pursuit of the stricken ship by using its saucer as a shield to absorb the turbolaser fire. It then proceeded to fire multiple phaser beams at the Devastator which, now it was without shields again, caused severe damage to the ship's hull. The Star Destroyer, now extremely damaged, stopped firing on the Arizona and came to a full stop, with the Arizona facing it's front like a standoff.

On the Arizona, Trent was gripping onto his chair out of instinct after the hits from the Devastator rocked the ship around like an old earthquake. Around him, the room was still flashing red, with scattered pieces of debris lying around everywhere.

"Damage report." Requested Trent.

"Shields are down to 47%." Answered Th'etonnor. "We've got casualties on decks 4-27, the warp drive is offline and the sensor array's been partially damaged."

"It looks like they've had it rougher." Commented Aldrin.

"They have commander." added Horan. "My scans indicate they're experiencing micro-fractures in their hull. If a few more shots hit them, the ship will fall apart quite literally."

"Captain, they are hailing us." announced Th'etonnor.

"Onscreen." ordered Trent. Once again, they saw the blank masked face of Darth Vader.

"_You have bested us."_ Started Vader. "_That is something that has never been done in the history of the empire. In order to avoid further loss of life, we are willing to surrender ourselves to you as prisoners."_

"We accept your surrender." Replied Trent. "Prepare for transport."

"_Very well them."_ Replied Vader. "_Devastator out." _He closed the channel and the image once again returned to the scarred Devastator.

"I'm not sure I believe him." commented Leia. "something inside me tells me that it's too good to be true."

"It may sound that way." replied Trent. "But this opportunity is too good not to take up. Beam their bridge crew off their ship and into our brig, tractor beam their vessel and then send over a full security team to secure their ship."

"Aye sir." replied Th'etonnor. "Transporters are standing by."

"Energize" Ordered Trent. And with that command, Th'etonnor beamed the bridge crew of the Devastator into the Arizona's brig. Outside, the Arizona put a tractor beam on the Devastator as the other ships did the same thing on the remaining Imperial vessels. All the ships there rendezvoused at the same coordinates, awaiting the Enterprise to resolve the situation.


	8. Chapter 8: No Rest For the Weary

Chapter 8: No Rest For The Weary

Inside the brig of the Arizona, Vader stood up and walked towards the forcefield preventing him from leaving. Outside, several other crew members from the Devastator sat up in their cells as he touched the forcefield, making sure it existed before he activated his lightsaber. He cut through the emitter at the top of the forcefield wall, causing the field to flicker out and die.

Before the security guard could react to this, he felt a strange force around his throat. It started choking him and raising him up in the air. He looked down at the man who had just escaped; he was holding his hand in a choking position. The last thing he saw was the man closing his hand into a fist before everything went black.

The now dead man was thrown across the room as Vader systematically destroyed the emitters for every brig room his men were in, setting them free whilst also destroying the security cameras and sensors to mask their escape.

"Thanks for helping us my lord." Thanked one of the officers he had just freed. "What is Commander Kerala doing right now though?"

"He's preparing for our arrival." Answered Vader. "Men, take your weapons and try to locate this ship's hangar bay. Secure a vessel for our disembarkment and wait for me."

"What will you be doing my lord?" Asked the officer.

"I will attempt to secure the plans for this starship and the teleported which brought us here for the emperor." Replied Vader. "Regarding of which we have little time. With haste men!"

The officers all ran out of the brig, conforming in one large group. Vader went out and ran in the opposite direction, his lightsaber to bare as he saw a lone officer walking down the hallway looking at a pad.

The officer, who had a blue collar, saw him and turned and ran in the opposite direction. She pressed some sort of badge on her chest and said something indeterminable from Vader's point of view before he held her in place with a force choke.

"What is your name?" Coldly Asked Vader, the tenseness of the situation making him even more angry.

"Ensign *cough* Melinda Conway" was all she could say through the chokehold.

"Where would I be able to find the schematics for this vessel?" Queried Vader, his grip on the female loosening to let her speak.

"I don't know, I've never had to use them before, I'm a medical officer." She whimpered in desperation. "Main Engineering on deck 36 would be my guess, please don't kill me, I have a family back on-"

Her sentence was interrupted by the sound of a phaser hitting Vader in the back. The hit wasn't enough to stun him like it would be for a normal person, but it was enough for him to lose his grip on Ensign Conway, who quickly got up and ran away as Vader turned his attention to the 2 security officers who were now firing at him. He swiftly charged them, deflecting their phaser shots with his lightsaber, the first officer being hit by his own blast, which had been reset to kill in an effort to try disable Vader, leaving a black mark on his chest as he was knocked onto the ground. The second officer fired another shot at Vader, this one deflected onto the wall, before he was stabbed by Vader's lightsaber, the sudden shock of being stabbed leaving him with widened eyes as he died. Vader felt sorry for the man as he saw the life drain out of his eyes, but at the same time felt immense pleasure from killing him. He turned and ran as he heard more footsteps coming from the corridor, running into what was discernibly a lift of some sort. The doors opened to accommodate him and then hissed shut.

"_Please state destination."_ asked the computer in a female monotone voice.

"Deck 36." stated Vader. The turbolift beeped to signal that it had understood his station and then proceeded to take him their, the lift whirring as it hurled itself through the bellows of the ship.

* * *

"_And you're saying the officers are dead?!"_ Angrily Asked Trent through Aldrin's combadge.

"I'm afraid so." Answered Aldrin with a sigh. "Lieutenant Kelso appears to have been killed by a reflected phaser blast set to kill, and Ensign Lopez was stabbed by the strange plasma sword the man was carrying."

"_What's his heading?"_ Queried Trent.

"Ensign Conway told me he was looking for the schematics of the Arizona." Replied Aldrin. "She told him out of desperation to go to Main Engineering."

"_Understood." _Trent replied. "_I'm ordering the evacuation of main engineering. You and your men will try to stop Vader from escaping the Arizona at the shuttlebay. I'm authorizing the use of maximum settings on phasers."_

"But Captain, that'll kill him." defended Aldrin. "Won't we still want him for questioning."

"_If a man like that can simply manipulate gravity like he appears to be able to, he's too dangerous to be left alive. If we can't stop him in the corridors, we can stop him from leaving by cutting power to the transporters and locking the shuttlebay doors. And I've got a trick for dealing with those stolen schematics."_

"Understood Captain. Aldrin out." Aldrin ended as she terminated the link between the bridge and her. "You heard the man. Set your phasers to maximum and let's head for the shuttlebay!"

She and the 6 other security officers did this as they ran down the corridor with haste, the situation making some even run faster as they attempted to reach engineering.

On the bridge, Captain Trent was impatiently walking around, waiting for a result.

"T'pon and his team have re entered engineering." Announced Horan, who was covering for Th'etonnor by transferring communications and scanners to his station. "They report that file 71099 is missing and the connection between the phasers and the warp core has been sabotaged."

"Is the damage repairable?" Asked Trent.

"Commander T'pon says he can fix it, but he'll have to take the warp core offline for the next half and hour to do so."

"We'll be sitting ducks." Analogised Hawk.

"Bring up the vitals of the security team." ordered Trent, almost completely oblivious to the fact that the file was missing and the ship's primary weapons were down. The viewscreen changed from the view of the Devastator to the life signs of the 2 dozen crewmembers, including Aldrin's and Th'etonnor's, who had been sent to stop the prisoners from escaping inside the shuttlebay. Their life signs sat above their weapons firing status and their weapons settings, all of which had been set to stun for the moment being.

"Reading a dozen unidentified human lifeforms approaching the team in the shuttlebay." called Horan.

"Here goes nothing." commented Hawk as the phaser statuses of the team started flashing red with the word firing replacing the green word charged. They inconsistently went red as the crewmember's heart rates spiked, one of which flatlined as the team took some losses.

"We've stunned about 4 of their officers already." Announced Horan. "One of our officers is dead, two are injured."

"_Th'etonnor here, looks like everything's under control here."_ reported Th'etonnor through the intercom.

"Captain, another unidentified identified human has entered the shuttlebay." called Horan.

"Oh my god!" gasped Hawk as she looked up at the screen. The security team started falling like flies, each of their heart rates flatlining with a continuous beep.

"_We've lost over a dozen men so far." _desperately reported Th'etonnor. "_The man in the black suit is killing our men with a combination of some sort of gravity manipulation powers and his plasma blade. He's paying more attention on getting his crew to safety though, they've entered the USS Colorado."_

"That's our only Danube Class Runabout." Commented Hawk.

"Sensors report the USS Colorado is powering up engines." Announced Horan. "They're trying to escape."

"I've locked the shuttlebay doors." Responded Hawk as she scrambled st her console to do so. "There's no way they'll be able to break out now, especially with the force field stopping them from shooting at it."

The viewer had changed to a security camera viewing the shuttlebay doors from the inside. The USS Colorado, now being commandeered by imperials, slowly waited for something to happen.

"Captain, I'm detecting a gravimetric disturbance inside the actual shuttlebay doors." Reported Horan. "This is impossi-"

His sentence was interrupted by the sound of durasteel against durasteel as the doors slowly opened against their will. As soon as it was wide enough, the Colorado flew through them, leaving the doors to slam shut as they were before.

"Captain...they've escaped." Announced Horan.

"They won't get very far." Replied Trent. "Execute file 71099!"


	9. Chapter 9: Betrayal

Chapter 9: Betrayal

"As planned, we managed to retrieve the plans for the Arizona and sabotage the vessel." Stated Vader through the com link he had just established with the Devastator. "I'm transmitting the plans now."

He pressed a few buttons on the pad he had used to store the file in and sure enough, he managed to send it to the Devastator with a resounding beep.

"_Many thanks Lord Vader." _Replied Kerala. "_Our mission is complete."_

"Please prepare for our arrival." Ordered Vader.

"_Oh I don't think I need to." _Boisterously replied Kerala.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly?" Impatiently asked Vader.

"_You see, before you came to the Devastator, my commanding officer had promised me command of the ship when he left."_ Ranted Kerala. "_When you came, I suddenly found myself with no chance of commanding such a powerful vessel as a Star Destroyer. For the past 13 years I've waited for you to go, waiting for you to finally cede command of the Devastator to me. But you never did, you never left. And even when you went to the Executor you left another captain in command instead of me."_

"Listen Kerala," replied Vader, "you are incapable of holding a command. The reason why you are in the position you are is because you constantly argue with-"

"_THE ONLY REASON WHY I'M IN THE POSITION I'M IN IS BECAUSE YOU NEVER GAVE ME A CHANCE!"_ Yelled Kerala, cutting off Vader mid sentence. "_Now that you're gone and there's no-one else watching, who can stop me from being captain of my ship? Who's going to question the death of the valiant Lord Vader, who was destroyed by the enemy after sending the plans of one of their spaceships to CAPTAIN Jason Kerala? Goodbye my lord. I hope you enjoy the force version of hell!"_

He cut the transmission as a console on the ship they had stolen lit up saying that it detected a weapons power up.

"Raise the shields!" ordered Vader. "Evade the Devastator!"

"The controls aren't responding sir!" frantically called the officer who took the helm. "I can't change our heading!"

"Shields aren't responding either." announced the officer next to him. "The weapons on this ship appear to be offline as well!"

Vader, now horrified at the situation he was in, started shaking inside at the thought of his death. He, the mighty Darth Vader, dead? It couldn't be true, it wasn't true. The force told him he still had a role later on, but how would he get there when he was about to die?

In orbit of Ivor Prime, the USS Colorado slowly floated in front of the Devastator. The Colorado, now with no control over it's course or direction, was defenceless as the Devastator pounded into it's hull with turbolaser fire. On the Colorado, consoles exploded, sparks flew and the entire ship shook, sending officers flying everywhere and killing those standing too close to the consoles. As the ship exploded around him, Vader felt a mysterious light start to claim him, slowly engulfing him until his vision was pure white. Outside, the Colorado exploded, leaving nothing but scattered debris and burnt body parts floating in the space it once occupied.

* * *

"Captain, the USS Colorado has been destroyed." announced Th'etonnor, now back at his station as well as Aldrin, both still shocked at the power of the man who they had just seen killed by his own men. "The Devastator is hailing us."

"Onscreen." ordered Trent. The man they now knew as Jason Kerala appeared on the screen.

"_Don't think that saves you from us."_ angrily started Kerala. "_With your precious ship disabled, there's nothing stopping us from getting away with the plans we just came into possession of."_

"Don't be so full of yourself." combated Trent. "This ship still has many tricks you're unaware of. Surrender yourselves immediately or we'll be forced to destroy you."

"_I think not."_ replied Kerala. "_In fact, I would demand the same thing, but seeing that we're outnumbered, I'd prefer to fight another day."_

"You leave us with no choice." aggressively ended Trent, the transmission cutting off with the end of his sentence.

"The Devastator is powering up it's engines." Reported Horan. "They're trying to escape!"

"Is file 71099 ready?" asked Trent.

"It had some issues integrating into the foreign technology, but we'll still be able to control basic things such as propulsion and weapons."

"Lock their weapons and engines into a diagnostic cycle and stand by for further orders." ordered Trent.

Hawk stared into her console, thinking if her idea was relevant, and then announced "Sir, I think I have an idea to get rid of them."

* * *

Kerala stood confident on the bridge, **his **bridge with the untimely death of Lord Vader. It was such a shame that he had to be disposed of, but never mind that, it let him take full command of the Devastator. He knew he wouldn't have been able to do this alone, and this misadventure into the other universe had allowed him and his fellow disgruntled crew mates to take control of the ship.

The Devastator was slowly turning to face where it had came from. The hyperdrive below them slowly hummed as it built up the necessary power to push the ship into hyperspace. He smiled as the ship finished aligning with it's hyperspace course.

Just as the humming was about to climax, it suddenly stopped, switching off with a steady fall in intensity. Kerala looked confused

"Captain, the hyperdrive's offline!" suddenly announced an officer. "It's stuck in diagnostic mode!"

"Same for the weapons!" called another officer. "I can't get any power to the turrets!"

"It must've been Vader!" angrily realised Kerala. "Force restart the entire hyperdrive assembly and get us away at full sub-light!"

It was then he heard the faint humming sound from the back of the bridge. Then he turned around to see the 3 black tubes labeled 'Quantum Torpedo Mark I'. Then he realised that the system diagnostics were not Vader's fault, but the Arizona's. Then he realised he was going to die. As he saw the Arizona on the rear view screen being tractored away by another vessel with the name 'USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E' emblazoned on the hull, he accepted his failure as he closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable explosion to claim his life.

* * *

In orbit of Ivor Prime, the Devastator slowly floated away from the Arizona. The ship, now scarred and battered beyond recognition, was in no shape for a battle of any sort. In fact, if it had taken any more hits, the entire ship would've fallen apart. At that moment, it would take those hits and then some, thanks to the 30 Quantum torpedoes transported on board, over half of the Arizona's complement of Quantum torpedoes.

The explosions started at the bridge, the 3 torpedoes located there exploding and turning the entire tower into a ball of flame, killing everyone in the command tower. The explosions continued through the hull, coursing through the corridors, killing stormtroopers and officers alike, the flames erupting from the holes and cracks in the Devastator's hull. Then, when it seemed like the ship couldn't take anymore, the whole thing consumed itself in a massive explosion, sending shockwaves in every direction. The Arizona and the Enterprise, which had come to get the Arizona away from the explosion as quickly as possible, felt the shockwave very lightly, alongside the Moscow, Crazy Horse, Galway, Tantive IV and the other 2 captured Star Destroyers now in tractor beams as the ships were lightly pushed away from the explosion, escaping the carnage as small pieces of debris scattered across the entire area.


	10. Chapter 10: The End?

Chapter 10: The End?

"And you're absolutely sure there's nothing else you could do?" Questioned Admiral Picard.

"As I told you before, Kerala left us with no option." answered Trent, slightly impatient at how he had answered the question 2 times before. "He was going to make his escape and get away with it, and as we couldn't disable then with our phasers, we had no choice but to use Lieutenant Hawk's idea of transporting our Quantum torpedoes onto their ship to destroy them."

"I agree with you." replied Picard, tugging down at his uniform in his seat in the Enterprise's ready room. "Given the same circumstances and options, I'd probably go with you on that one. I must say it was an excellent idea to replace your schematics with a computer virus."

"Thank you sir." Thanked Trent. "We had the virus lying around after the war. Both the Arizona and the Galway had it on there in case the Jem'hadar attacked and captured us."

"I understand you have something else to show me?" queried Picard.

"Yes I was about to get to that actually." started Trent. He pressed a few buttons on the desktop computer and turned it around, showing Picard a map of the surrounding area within 15 light years, with various red dots and some red lines connecting them.

"My chief engineer came up with a method of using our subspace transceiver array to detect their ships in the region they call 'hyperspace'. With access to one of their hyperdrives, he managed to modify our transceiver to scan for recent entry and exit points from hyperspace. This is what he found after his first scan 2 hours ago."

"The red dots signify an entry or exit point, and the lines indicate the direction the vessel in hyperspace had to take to get there." Trent explained as he got up to point at the map for Picard.

"These must be probes left over from when the Devastator was probing the region." figured Picard. "They must've spread out even beyond the range of this map by now."

"Princess Leia tells me that these probes are used to map routes for their vessels to travel in." Described Trent. "They're also described as being highly elusive; if they come under a tractor beam by another vessel they'll instantly self-destruct."

"I want the modifications to your transceiver array sent to me immediately." ordered Picard. "I'm ordering all starships within a 300-light year radius of the Ivor system to search for any signs of these probes and destroy them on sight."

"And what about us?" eagerly asked Trent.

"You and you're crew have been through enough recently. You'll be allowed to proceed to starbase 75 for 1 month shore leave." Answered Picard.

"Thank you Admiral." replied Trent. "This means a lot for my crew."

"Anytime Captain." finished Picard. "I hear that you and Captain Styles are planning a cricket match at Starbase 75."

"Yes we are sir." Gladly replied Trent. "We're hoping to do it within the next few weeks."

"Well, if we can finish off getting rid of the probes here, you can bet on my attendance."

"Thank you Sir. It'll mean a lot to us." Both men shook hands before Trent walked out of the ready room.

* * *

Sickbay on the USS Arizona was usually not busy at this time of day. However, today sickbay was full of crewmembers with various injuries, mainly sustained during the battle, whereas others were inflicted during the escape of the prisoners on the Arizona. Chief Medical Officer Dolovain, who would normally attempt to bust himself with paperwork, now found himself operating on patients plasma burns with dermal regenerators, ordering his medical staff to perform various operations on crew members to get them back up and running.

Princess Leia walked into sickbay, escorted by the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. The two droids were bickering with each other as they walked in, only to be silenced by Leia as soon as Dolovain turned his attention to her.

"You asked to see me?" Asked Leia.

"Yes, there is something urgent I need to talk to you about." Replied Dolovain as he moved away from the patient he was working on. "Ensign Conway, can you treat this man while I talk to the Princess?"

"Yes sir." Answered Conway as she walked over with her medical tricorder.

He walked over to his office, Leia following.

"You know, when you first came in, the scans showed you were an ordinary human." Dolovain explained as he sat down at his desk, Leia sitting down at the guest chair in front of him. "But I delved a little bit more into the transporter logs, and I found thousands of unidentified life forms inside you. Now I thought originally this was just because of some parasite you had contracted. But when Darth Vader came aboard, he possessed a similar amount to you." He turned his monitor to face her, showing a small sample of the organisms inside her cells. "There were over 20,000 of these little things inside our black suited friend, and there's a similar amount in you. However, there were very few in all the other officers and people we've treated from your ship. Do you have any clue as to what these are?"

"I think I do." answered Leia. "in our universe, there is a mysterious thing called the force. It's what you saw Vader using in the shuttle bay. The force is given to us by these tiny little life-forms inside us which you see called midichlorians. Normally in non-force sensitive people they're quite low, as you saw, but those with higher numbers are capable of harnessing the force to it's potential. An elitist group known as the Jedi used to harness this power for good use, but they were eliminated when Emperor Palpatine took command of the senate and turned the Republic into the Empire. But..."

"But?" asked Dolovain, curious as to where she was leading.

"If I have a similar amount of midichlorians to Vader," proposed Leia, "then aren't I Vader's daughter?"

* * *

Trent stared back down at the bowling machine that stood a good 20 meters away from him. He was using his off time to relax by playing cricket in the holodeck, training for a game which he was going to play on shore leave. His skills were a little rusty; he had last trained the month before, but he was confident he could face against the 140Kph ball that was about to be launched at him.

"Computer, play simulation cricket training." requested Trent.

"_Program ready. Ready to start program cricket training at your command."_ replied the computer in the same female monotone it always did.

"Hit it." responded Trent as a full set of cricket pads materialized on him. The balls started firing out of the bowling machine, each ball going in a different direction and height to Trent than the previous one.

As the balls continued firing down at him, he started to think about the series of events that had happened in the past day. The mysterious Darth Vader, a secretive man with a will to destroy anything in his path. The aggressive 'Galactic Empire', a group of facist humans from an alternate universe with a strong will for total domination of the galaxy, now with a gateway to another. And the small 'Rebel Alliance', built and run from hope, and struggling to survive. He hoped an accord could be reached between all these factions, as he played a pull shot to a ball coming at his chest at over 140 k/ph.

He had been batting for more than half an hour when his thoughts and cricket were interrupted by the sound of the holodeck doors opening behind the machine, disturbing the once pristine holographic wall it was in. Out of the doors came Princess Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO. They stared bewilderedly at Trent as the door closed behind them, returning the wall to it's original holographic concrete state.

"Computer, pause program." ordered Trent, making the balls stop coming out and his holographic protective gear to fade out of existence, leaving him in his cricket whites.

"I was training for a game I was going to play on shore leave."

"It's alright." replied Leia. "I was just coming to say goodbye."

"So you are taking up Admiral Picard's offer to seek out the probes?" Queried Trent.

"Yes, it seems to be the best thing we can do to pay for your hospitality and kindness in this situation."

"The Arizona's going to Starbase 75 for shore leave." proposed Trent. "You could get another ship from there safely to Earth, where we can provide you with political asylum from the empire."

"Thanks, but I don't want to feel like some sort of special little snowflake." answered Leia. "besides, I'll be more useful out there on the Enterprise rather than in some guest quarters on a planet."

"Very well then." replied Trent.

"You know, Picard's willing to try to negotiate with the Imperials again if they come back." commented Leia. "Perhaps you'll be told to go to help them with it once you're finished on shore leave."

"Perhaps." replied Trent.

"Well, we'd best be off now. Enterprise is leaving in an hour with the Tantive IV and I need to be on Enterprise."

"Very well then." Trent Replied. "Until next time."

Trent waved goodbye as Princess Leia waved back as she walked back out of the holodeck. The door briefly appeared to let her out, then closed as it faded back into a wall. Trent smiled briefly, before unpausing the program and continuing his cricket training.

* * *

The bridge of the Arizona was bustling with activity as it prepared to get underway. The damage to the warp core had been repaired, albeit with some effort due to the fact that the connection itself was mutilated beyond repair and had to be replaced. Outside in space, the Enterprise and the Tantive IV were both close together, ready for the Enterprise to encase the Tantive IV in it's warp bubble.

Captain Trent walked onto the bridge, now in his regular duty uniform. Commander Aldrin got out of the captain's chair and turned to face Trent.

"All systems are nominal sir." reported Aldrin. "Enterprise reports she's ready to go. The Galway and the Crazy Horse have tractor beams on the other imperial vessels they're bringing to Starbase 75, and the Moscow is ready to escort the Enterprise off."

"Excellent." replied Trent. "We should all be ready for a month off now."

"You don't say sir." remarked Hawk. "Is anyone else ready for Risa?"

"On the contrary, I was ready to go back to my family on Andoria." Announced Th'etonnor. "I was more than ready to take time off once our mission was supposed to be over to go see my son. He's going to be 10 on the day I come back."

"What about you sir?" Asked Aldrin. "What are your plans?"

"I'll be on Starbase 75, playing cricket and enjoying my shore leave while I can Commander." Answered Trent. "And I won't be answering any communiques."

"You sound Australian when you say that sir." Commented Hawk.

"Well it's more productive than laying in the sun attempting to get slightly burnt." smartly shot back Trent. "At least I'm being active."

"And I'm not playing the most boring Earth game in existence." quickly replied Hawk. "It's a wonder that game still exists at all."

"You need an appreciation for the finer things in life." Jokingly commented Trent. He smiled as Hawk rolled her eyes and looked back to her console.

"Sir, Enterprise is hailing us." Announced Th'etonnor.

"Onscreen." Ordered Trent. On the screen appeared the bridge of the USS Enterprise, with Admiral Picard in his command chair. To the left, Commander Worf sat in the 1st officer's seat, working at his station, and in what would normally be the counselor's seat on the right was Princess Leia, now wearing a command division starfleet uniform with no rank pips.

"It looks like the probes are going to keep us busy for a while." stated Picard. "we're getting reports that the Romulans are finding them now."

"Don't worry about the cricket." replied Trent. "We'll be sure to save you a spot in one of the teams, sir."

"You'd better. Picard out." The transmission ended as the viewscreen returned to the view of the Sovereign class ship facing away from them with the Tantive IV close to it. A translucent beige bubble briefly formed around both vessels, before both suddenly began stretching until they snapped forward, disappearing in a flash of light, with the Moscow following them immediately after. The Galway and the Crazy Horse wasted no time either, enveloping the Star Destroyers in the same beige bubbles before going to warp.

"Well, best not to delay any further." Remarked Trent. "Hawk, plot a course to Starbase 75, warp 8."

"Aye sir." replied Trent. She pressed a few buttons and the Arizona aligned itself in the direction the Galway and the Crazy Horse went. "Ready to engage on your command."

"Hit it." ordered Trent.

Outside, the Arizona looked like it had been through one hell of a fight. The scars from the previous battle still remained, scattered in blackened patches of the hull across the vessel. Nevertheless, the ship was still capable of going to warp on it's own, and was about to do so for the final time before docking at Starbase 75 for a month long period of recuperation.

The ship started to stretch forwards into the stars, the warp nacelles doing their magic of creating a displacement bubble around the ship. Once the field fully enveloped the ship, it snapped forward, the warp nacelles flashing before it disappeared into the distance with a flash of light. And once again, the vacuum of space was alone...or was it?

Around the North Pole of Ivor Prime, a little probe had been carefully cataloguing the situation in detail. The probe, unable to be detected due to the magnetic interference from the pole, went into hyperspace before dropping out shortly after at the anomaly. It raced towards the anomaly, and upon reaching it faded out of existence as it was turned into energy to be transferred to the other universe. And then finally, the vacuum of space was empty.


	11. Epilogue

Epilogue

In his throne room on Coruscant, Emperor Palpaltine sat in his chair, awaiting news from Lord Vader's fleet. Vader had usually been quite competent in matters such as this, so why hadn't he received his status update when he had requested it? It could be due to issues with communications through the anomaly, but even that could be resolved with the use of a shuttle.

An admiral walked through into the throne room towards Palpaltine, in his hands a report yet to be filed away.

"Admiral, do you bring us news from Lord Vader?" Questioned Palpaltine.

"I'm afraid it's news of the bad kind." Answered the Admiral. "One of the probes from the Devastator returned to us with news of the battle. We lost 3 star destroyers, including the Devastator, and the remainder were captured.."

"Anything from Vader himself?" Asked Palpatine.

"We received no comuniques from Vader directly. However, based on the locator in his suit, he was briefly aboard the Arizona, before escaping and being destroyed by a group of mutineers who took over the Devastator."

"Get out." ordered Palpatine. The Admiral fearfully walked out, the emperor's guards slowly turning to face him as he walked out.

"Well, you've won." Called Palpaltine into the distance. "Come on, show yourself!"

"Very well, I'll come out." Replied a voice out of nowhere. The voice materialised in a flash, turning into a human wearing an imperial uniform, complete with a Grand Moff's rank badges.

"Why must you pretend to be a Grand Moff Q?" Disgustedly Asked Palpaltine.

"Oh I merely wish to impress you, mon empereur." Answered Q in a defensive manner. "It never offended Picard when I wore his uniform."

"Who's Picard?" Impatiently Asked Palpaltine.

"...Never mind." replied Q. "He's a person from my universe, quite resourceful actually. Doesn't really like me though."

"I'm starting to see why." commented Palpaltine.

"So, have you learned your lesson now, young weak one?" prodded Q with a smile.

"Yes I have." replied Palpaltine. "The empire is not the only powerful human force in the multiverse."

"And it never has been." added Q. "Did you know that there are many parallel universes that have been in existence long before yours where humanity has successfully taken to the stars, even peacefully co-existed amongst other lifeforms. And look at you, a human driven dictatorship which oppresses and murders those not in the military. It's no wonder that pitiful rebellion of yours is gaining influence in your poor excuse for a senate."

"That's enough Q!" yelled Palpaltine, his patience reaching it's upper limits. "There is no need for this pointless mocking of my empire. I am going to announce that a group of savages from another universe destroyed 5 Star Destroyers. As a result of that, I will be declaring war on this so called 'United Federation of Planets' and any other political power in that universe who would dare to side with them."

"I see I may have overstayed my welcome here, now that you're this angry." Q commented with a slightly sad tone to his voice. "However, before I go, if you're going to attack the Federation, I have something to give you."

"What could you possibly give me that would help me?" bitterly asked Palpaltine.

"Let's just say he's your favourite pet." replied Q with a smirk. With a snap of his fingers, Q disappeared in a flash of light, and in his place stood Darth Vader, still standing as he was when the Colorado was destroyed.

"Lord Vader!" exclaimed Palpaltine with suddenly brightened eyes.

"My master, what is going on?" asked Vader, slightly puzzled as to how he was alive. "The last thing I saw was a flash of white light as our craft was destroyed. I thought I was being claimed by the force."

"Our mysterious friend has decided to be helpful for once." answered Palpaltine, an evil smile on his face. "I'm declaring war on the Federation. I want you to lead the effort on the Executor."

"Yes, my master." answered Vader, taking a knee before Palpaltine. "What is to be of Commander Kerala. He is the one who attempted to kill me."

"The Devastator was destroyed by the Federation. In doing so, they got rid of Kerala for you."

"Understood master." replied Vader. "Should I summon Tarkin and the Death Star?"

"They can wait until we find the capital of the Federation. In the meanwhile you can take as many Star Destroyers as you wish to their universe."

"Very well then. I shall be in contact with the admiralty to discuss tactics."

Vader walked out of the room. Behind him, Palpaltine smiled; another galaxy, far far away, ripe for the taking. This was going to be the event that set his empire in stone.

* * *

Princess Leia sat at her console on the bridge of the Enterprise. The Federation Flagship had been scanning hyperspace and real space for signs of probes for the past few days, and it had destroyed several probes as well. She found that she liked the vast size of Federation starships, her quarters on both the Enterprise and the Arizona being a vast improvement over the relatively small quarters on the Tantive IV. As she sat in thought, Admiral Picard walked onto the bridge out of his ready room.

Commander Worf got out of his chair. "Sir, we're now approaching the Xahea system."

"Did we manage to beat the probe?" Asked Picard.

"We did sir. After we drop out of warp, the probe will arrive in roughly 30 seconds."

"Ready phasers." ordered Picard. The officer at tactical started charging the phasers for firing.

The ship dropped out of warp relatively close to Xahea. Out the viewscreen, the planet turned bellow, shrouded in blue and brown gas caught in the planet's gravity. The ship swung away from this image to view the stars, readying to destroy the probe.

"Probe will arrive in 10 seconds." announced the conn officer. "9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1-"

With a soft boom, the probe dropped out of hyperspace before the Enterprise. The Enterprise computer had already detected the enemy target, and within milliseconds had calculated a firing solution using the ship's phasers. All it took was for the officer at tactical to press fire, and the phaser strip on top of the saucer fired at the probe, hitting it with pinpoint accuracy and destroying it before it could gather any information and send it back to it's counterparts.

"Bonjour mon Capitaine, or should I say, Amiral?" greeted Q as he flashed onto the bridge. Instead of an Imperial uniform, Q now wore a starfleet admiral's uniform of the time, complete with rank pips on the red collar and a belt with the federation crest on the buckle.

"Q?!" exclaimed Picard. "Now is not the time for one of your games!"

"Oh no this isn't a game." replied Q. "I'm trying to help you."

"How could you possibly help us?" Angrily asked Picard. "The last time you came to me you forced me to play a game with you and other omnipotent beings to settle your little fight."

"Listen up you little brat!" yelled Q. "The Galactic Empire is about to declare war on the Federation. Now I may have resurrected Darth Vader for them,"

Picard and the rest of the crew started scowling at Q, Worf's face especially looking threatening.

"But let me assure you," continued Q, "that I am giving you something just as good, in fact possibly better."

"What could you give us that would help against them?" angrily asked Worf, baring his teeth to control his anger."

"Let's just say no-one knows their story except for a few select people, one of which is here now." Q smiled as he snapped his fingers, disappearing in a flash of light.

The officer at the conn noticed his console going off.

"Sir, I'm detecting a quantum singularity in this system."

"Is it naturally occuring?" asked Picard.

"No sir, it's artificial." Replied the officer. "Should I take us closer to it?"

"Make it so." ordered Picard. The officer nodded, then put the ship at warp for a few brief seconds, before dropping out in front of the anomaly. The anomaly appeared to be emanating from a point below the ship, with a light blue material being ejected from the anomaly in the reverse direction that water would go down a sink.

"Scanning now."called an officer at sciences. The scan proceeded for a few seconds, before finishing and the results appearing on the officer's station.

"Sir, I'm detecting signs of a battle through the anomaly." announced the officer at sciences while reading the scans. "Some of the debris shows similarities with a Constitution Class saucer section from the Klingon war of 2256."

"That variant of the Constitution hasn't been in service since the entire run of them at the time were refitted in 2260." Commented Picard.

"Sir, a ship is coming through the singularity." announced the officer at the con.

"Take us to yellow alert." ordered Picard.

The wall lighting and computer system color, which was originally a combination of gray and blue, changed to a flashing yellow as the ship went to yellow alert.

"Captain…" Worf's voice trailed off as the ship came through.

The ship came out, following a bright red light through the anomaly. It had a bronze colour to the hull, with the saucer split into a series of rings. The stardrive connected to 2 extraordinarily long warp nacelles, the ship now identifiably with a length longer than even the Enterprise.

"Report." Ordered Picard. "What is that ship and who is it from."

"Well it's a Federation starship." Answered the officer at sciences. "Crossfield class, length of 750.5 M."

"Crossfield class?" Asked Picard in a confused manner. "They haven't been in service for nearly a century.

"I'm getting a registry." announced the science officer. "NCC-1031. USS...Discovery."

As soon as he finished his sentence, the entire ship went to red alert. The computer screens stopped displaying anything they were displaying previously, and started displaying an older starfleet logo, with the word 'Discovery' placed beneath.

Immediately after this, Picard rushed off to his ready room, apparently knowing what was about to occur long before the others did.

"What's going on?" asked Leia as the ship returned to yellow alert while Picard was still inside. "What's Admiral Picard doing?"

"I do not know." replied Worf. "But if my instinct is correct, the appearance of this ship can only mean one thing."

"What is it?" asked Leia.

"Trouble." was all Worf said as he turned to face the viewscreen.

In space, the USS Discovery fully exited the singularity, the anomaly closing behind them. The ship, following the bright red light ahead of them, moved towards the Enterprise, going up to get to it's level. The ship stopped dead in front of the Enterprise as the red light moved back inside the shuttlebay. The two ships faced each other, caught in a standoff with no shots fired, waiting for something to happen.

* * *

Hey there!

So, this is it. The end of the beginning. No I'm not going to continuously add chapters to this thing, it doesn't make for a good story. Instead I'm going to be writing seperate instalments, probably around 4-5 in this series, because I feel it gives me the chance to take it slower, as I've still got to do other things in my life. Here's the title for the next book:

Star Trek vs Star Wars: the Imperial War

see you soon!


End file.
